Mastodawn

Boost for reach please!

Does anyone know of a turnkey 'de-bigtech' solution, service or facilitator? My attempts have stalled and fallen into the 'too hard' basket. I am willing to pay. Not sure how much.. what's your price? Preferably NZ based but most locations except USA and hell considered.

My main email is somewhere I'm happy with but I need to point a number of my subscriptions to it instead of Google.
Photos are all in Google
Files mainly Dropbox
Phone Android
OS Linux on a laptop, win on desktop
Software almost all FOSS/Linux except a couple of things which only run nicely on windows.

Nexcloud plus graphene(?) phone plus Linux seems like it could work but I am 100% sure I'm not the one to do it.

#EscapeBigTech
#TechHelp
#DeGoogle

Paul - Antifa. LGBTQ+ safe.Feb 2

@Niall If your issues mainly is around files and photos, look at a Nextcloud provider. I can't tell what else you need from your description. Online Office? Magic?

@paulk i don't need online office. I need a phone solution, as stated. I don't know if you're being facetious with your magic comment so I'll ignore it.

Paul - Antifa. LGBTQ+ safe.Feb 2

@Niall Right. Nextcloud has a good application for Android and iOS so that would work for accessing files and photos.

I've read good things about Pcloud but I have no hands-on experience with it so that might be worth reading up.

Good luck de-bigteching!

@Niall
> if you're being facetious with your magic comment

Maybe @paulk meant Magisk?

"... a suite of open source software for customizing Android ..."

https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk

GitHub - topjohnwu/Magisk: The Magic Mask for Android

The Magic Mask for Android. Contribute to topjohnwu/Magisk development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub

Paul - Antifa. LGBTQ+ safe.Feb 10

@strypey Nope, I meant magic, but nice to learn about Magisk!

@paulk
> Nope, I meant magic

Then I don't understand what your point was either. If you were implying that an online office using Free Code would be magic, that's possible with OnlyOffice. Our demo combines it with NextCloud, to create a pretty good GoggleDocs/Drive replacement;

http://hub.iridescent.nz/

Online office in a web app is also possible with LibreOffice;

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Using_LibreOffice_in_a_Web_Browser

Iridescent Nextcloud

A safe home for your NZ-focused open content.

Iridescent Nextcloud

@Niall just noting for photos, Flickr are still around and as far as I can tell significantly less evil than Google.

Y Gath Goch Feb 2

@stephen @Niall yes! I have a Flickr account

@ygathgoch @stephen thanks. Hadn't considered that. It's yankeedoodle though and I'm trying to avoid them.

@Niall @ygathgoch I believe the new owners are Irish, although probably the servers are in the US.

@stephen @ygathgoch @Niall are they still owned by Smugmug? If so, I have experience with Smugmug doing massive rate-limiting on exports from their system, like to the point it's unusable if you've got a large collection that you want to shift. They're major enshittifiers, and of course in my experience, no corporation is really 'less evil'.

@Niall infomaniak? Swiss.

Aaron Brick — אהרן בריק Feb 2

@Niall I support your goal and I hope you succeed. Hypothesis: the reason no alternatives are exactly “turnkey” is that Google has invested so heavily in the user interfaces and the integration of their many products, that it's hard to compete with the convenience they offer.

@aarbrk
> Hypothesis: the reason no alternatives are exactly “turnkey” is that Google has invested so heavily in the user interfaces

Other possible reasons;

a) BorgSoft and Goggle strong-arming hardware vendors into making devices hard to put a different OS on

b) You can't just download and install server software yet. Even with tools like Docker, deployment is still an expert task. Plus you need a server, a dedicated computer with good net connection and a fixed IP (or Dynamic DNS).

Bonsai861 Feb 2

@Niall Proton would help a lot of these. Proton Mail for email, Proton Drive for files and photo sync. Zeitkapsl is good for photos but would need to find a separate file storage solution. If you're happy self hosting then Nextcloud for files and photos could work well too.

GrapheneOS is a good temp measure for Google Android until true Google alternatives mature (like Ubuntu Touch, SailfishOS and PostmarketOS).

@bonsai861 funny, I have a paid Proton account but got it when their storage solution was very basic. I should revisit that.

Neil Munro Feb 2

@Niall Jottacloud is good (Norway) and covers photos and files pretty well. For more comprehensive photos, immich is amazing, but not turnkey and requires tech knowledge to install.

(1/2)

@nlmunro
> Jottacloud is good

They're transparent about the Free Code libraries their service depends on, which is great;

https://docs.jottacloud.com/en/articles/2096789-third-party-libraries

These seem to be their code repos;

https://github.com/jotta

But I'm struggling to figure out whether their full software stack is under free licenses. I can't see anything on their website that clarifies.

Third Party Libraries | Jottacloud Help Center

Our cloud service runs on great open source software

(2/2)

RMS would say it's only the apps and JS you run on your own devices that matter in this respect. In a sense, if you can't use their service with your choice of apps, or keeping using their apps with a different service, you're still locked in even if 100% of the software they use us under a free license.

But I guess it's akin to seeing an organic certification on a food product. It's not a guarantee that it's sustainable or health my, but it suggests the company cares about these things.

@Niall my replacement for Google photos is Immich - https://immich.app - I've been using it for a few years for automatic phone photos & video backup (can share media with family & friends, or even let them use my immich for their own backups as well). It's superb. A couple of us are exploring offering it commercially among other services, right here in Aotearoa. And yeah, NextCloud is also an excellent option. Happy to chat about it (or give you a 'walk through') if you're interested.

Immich

Self-hosted photo and video management solution. Easily back up, organize, and manage your photos on your own server. Immich helps you browse, search and organize your photos and videos with ease, without sacrificing your privacy.

Immich

@Niall @lightweight I'm also a recent convert to (self hosted) Immich and NextCloud to ditch Google Photos and Dropbox respectively.

I'm also running SyncThing to backup the data to other places

Oliver Seiler Feb 2

@Niall I second Nextcloud - it works really well and you can find commercial hosting providers (not sure if nz based exist but if not plenty of EU based options).

Oliver Seiler Feb 2

@Niall I run Nextcloud on my nas which keeps all data nicely contained and it's not too hard to set up if (and I know that might well be the show stopper) you know your way around some docker basics

@Niall @oseiler TechnologyWise offer a managed NextCloud service running on Catalyst Cloud. All fully sovereign. It is focused at business use though, perhaps still drop them a line?

@puck
> TechnologyWise offer a managed NextCloud service running on Catalyst Cloud

Good to know. They have a list of "Open Source Alternatives" here, but TBH it seems a bit dated;

https://www.technologywise.co.nz/latest-news-items/item/6-free-software-alternatives

Also they name the 2 columns "commercial" and "alternatives", which is very early-2000s, and really grinds my gears. MatterMost, for example, is on their "alternatives" list, but it would be plain wrong to say they're not commercial. They don't even publish full source code.

@Niall @oseiler

Open Source Alternatives

We've been working with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for nearly 20 years. Here is a list of common proprietary software products and their FOSS equivalents: Commercial Alternative Access-It, MUSAC, SirsiDynix Koha Library Software Adobe Acrobat PDF Creator Adobe Audition Audacity Adobe I...

@Niall @oseiler @strypey The date on that post is 2020. I'll suggest they update it, and provide your feedback. Thank you.

@puck
> I'll suggest they update it, and provide your feedback

Feel free to link them to my post, and provide my email address (in my profile).

If you think they're really interested, I'm happy to email them a list of software suggestions. For a start, I'd suggest "proprietary" instead of "commercial" and "replacements" instead of "alternatives".

@Niall #yunohost ?

@Niall Just a slightly different option: Synology servers come with a whole bunch of ready to go services. Photos, music, backups, office suite with browser apps. You can host your own without having to get technical.
It's not open source but you pay once for the box then you own it.

@essjax @Niall I mean you can do the same with ugreen and stuff, where you have more control if you feel like it.

With synology you are at their corporate whims when they decide they don't want you using "off the shelf" drives again... glares at his synology

Future Sprog Feb 2

I wrote up notes on how I do my offsite backup. It was expensive to setup, but other than Synology raising eyebrows at my choice of hard drive vendor it's mostly out of the control of US-based companies.

https://sdc.org.nz/notes/offsite-backup

@alex @essjax @Niall

Offsite Backups, done privately

Offsite Backups, done privately

@futuresprog @essjax @Niall at least they walked that back, but still, sour about it.

Future Sprog Feb 2

I popped in a fresh disk last week, DSM7, all up to date. It said, “hmmm, you know this isn’t a disk we recommend” and then I clicked the “whatever bro” button and continued to add it to the array.

I have another disk to add. I’ll get a screenshot.

Future Sprog Feb 3

Not listed on the Synology Products Compatibility List

@alex @essjax @Niall

Oliver Seiler Feb 4

@alex @essjax @Niall @futuresprog you know that there's a way to add to that list?

Oliver Seiler Feb 4

@alex @essjax @Niall @futuresprog https://github.com/007revad/Synology_HDD_db

GitHub - 007revad/Synology_HDD_db: Add your HDD, SSD and NVMe drives to your Synology's compatible drive database and a lot more

Add your HDD, SSD and NVMe drives to your Synology's compatible drive database and a lot more - 007revad/Synology_HDD_db

GitHub

mahadevank Feb 2

@Niall hi Raglan, let's connect? I'd love to help you out with this.

We run a platform that makes it easy to host open-source solutions, we designed it for non-tech users.

Our servers are in India, but we can easily setup an account for you in any AWS region of your choice.

@mahadevank AWS?! Thanks but that's kinda missing the point.

mahadevank Feb 2

@Niall that's step #1 - digital surveillance still disappears the moment you run your own software, and the data belongs to you, even if you're on AWS.

We are actively working with other options and as soon as we have a provider that integrates well, we'll be off AWS as well.

Coming off Big Tech is a process. If we try to do it all in one go, it gets very difficult.

@mahadevank yes, it's a process, you're right. If AWS is involved at present then at present I'm out, sorry.

mahadevank Feb 2

@Niall Not a problem, and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I’ll add an additional vote for hosting outside of big tech on our product roadmap

@mahadevank
> I’ll add an additional vote for hosting outside of big tech on our product roadmap

Seriously planning a move off AWS is the best way to find out of you *can* move off AWS. Even if you decide they're your best option for now.

AWS have all sorts of proprietary ways of doing things, which they justify as helping customers in some way, but it's really just to lock them in.

I'm with @Niall though. A dependence on AWS is a liability.

@Niall
I have recently started using ente for picture sync and backup - so far it works like a charm. prices seem fair (to me), they are also here (https://fosstodon.org/@ente), and don't require self-hosting.
I cannot verify their privacy claims, but they are open source, so I suppose someone could.

can also recommend nextcloud, we use it at work and it does pretty much everything - files, office, calendar.. they are also here (https://mastodon.xyz/@nextcloud), and can be self hosted or "rented".

Ente (@[email protected])

363 Posts, 0 Following, 5.74K Followers · End-to-end encryption for your Photos. No ads, no tracking, fully open source.

Fosstodon

@Niall You're in luck! @miramarmike wrote a handy post on How to #DeGoogle
https://blog.mikeriversdale.co.nz/2026/02/google-apps-i-no-longer-use.html

Google Apps I No Longer Use

Back in October 2024 I was pondering what to do with my Google-centric technology as Trump was becoming the US President yet again. Recentl...

@Kay @Niall @miramarmike "This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyse traffic. Your IP address and user agent are shared with Google, together with performance and security metrics, to ensure quality of service, generate usage statistics and to detect and address abuse." The irony

ente and Immich (both cloud or self hostable) will import form a Google photos takeout.

For drive migration, consider using drive sync to a local folder. Then you have a choice if providers - for example Proton drive has its own sync tool so it's just a case of drag and drop from the Google drive folder to the Proton drive folder to reupload to the new provider (assuming you want to keep it in the cloud)

Android has clients for all these.

@Niall here ya go :) (Paris's work rocks :))

https://disconnect.blog/getting-off-us-tech-a-guide/

Getting off US tech: a guide

I’m in the process of dropping US tech services. Here’s how I did it, and options you should consider.

Disconnect